“How did you even find me, anyway?” I ask, seething. “Have the two of you been stalking me this entire time?”
“No, we were in Heresse, actually.” Chase takes the bait without biting. “But then Novi scried to tell us you were in trouble, and we decided it was worth the trip to try and get you out—though we didn’t know if you’d still be alive when we got here or if we’d be able to track you down. You got really fucking lucky.”
I don’t feel lucky.
The three days I spent getting beaten by a rainbow of Shades didn’t feel lucky.
And neither does the life I have ahead of me now.
“I hope you don’t think this makes us even,” I say when Chase finally exhausts his supply of Green and pulls away, his energy drained and his breath rasping.
“We’ll never be even,” he agrees, and Gods, even his contrition has me itching to rip his throat out. Chase knows he did wrong and he’s taking responsibility, to the point where railing at him feels like a petty waste of time. A waste of anger. Because, deep down, I know that at the root of his lies was a good reason, a sister he loves just as much as I loved Eve. But knowing and forgiving are two different things and they don’t always go hand in hand. Sometimes, when you break things, it makes them stronger, more resilient. Sometimes broken things stay broken.
Which is why I can’t stay here.
With him.
With her.
With the memory of the happiness they took from me even as they forged their own.
I have to leave. Right now. Before the need to hurt them back rears up and swallows me whole.
“Ez, please—you can’t go out there; the city’s crawling with trackers.” Cemmy chases after me as I make to flee the house. She hasn’t changed at all, if I’m honest. Still stubborn enough to try and sway me, still reckless enough to break into a Council stronghold despite the devastating odds.
Still familiar enough to implore me withEz.
“Gods, when is that not true?” But I don’t want to be swayed, and I don’t want to be chased after, and the more she tries to prove she cares, the more the pressure of these past few days—of this past year—threatens to come bursting out. “We’re Hues, Cemmy, there will always be trackers after us, no matter where we go or how low we lie. We exist, they hunt us, we escape, they do it over, until oneday, we simply run out of time. That’s the story.” And it’s not the kind you can change by holing up in some house.
“Fine. You want to leave? Leave. Drink yourself into another prison, I can’t stop you. Just take this with you.” She presses a brand-new scry crystal into my hand.
“I don’t need a babysitter, Cemmy.”
“And I have no intention of becoming one,” she clips, crossing her arms. “But I promised Novi we’d look out for you, so at least doherthe favor of wearing it. That way, when something happens—”
I don’t miss the fact that she sayswhennotif.
“—we’ll know what to tell her. You can give her that much, can’t you?” The look she fixes me could sublimate stone. “I mean it, Ez. You want to punish me? Go right ahead, we both know I deserve it. But don’t punish Novi, okay? She’s done nothing to earn it.”
The words wrap a hand around my heart and squeeze, pumping shame into my blood. I’ve known Novi since I was ten years old, more than half my life. She was the first Hue Eve and I found when we started searching Isitar for others, and the pin that kept our family together every time the world threatened to pull us apart. Cemmy’s right—she hasn’t earned my silence, and if something were to happen to me, I’d want her to learn the truth so that she could grieve and move on.
“Fine, I’ll wear the scry.” I relent, slipping the chain over my head then tucking it beneath my shirt. “Happy?”
“Be safe, Ez,” is all she says in reply.
Then, true to her word, Cemmy steps aside and lets me go.
CHAPTER 8
RAYA
The Sapphire’s escape is all the Academy can talk about for hours. A Hue has never evaded the Council’s justice quite so publicly before, and to have done it in a flurry of Red magic—from right under the nose of three trackers and the elder in charge of their guild, no less—the whole castle is up in arms.
As the only Shade to have witnessed the truth of what transpired in the court chamber, I spent a full bell telling the trackers what I saw, another bell ducking compliments for breaking free of the glamour so quickly, and another one after that trying to sidestep the question ofhow, because admitting that I bribed my ex so that I could live down to my reputation and become fate-touched wasn’t really an option.
Though it is still a problem.
And not the kind I’ll be able to hide come tomorrow’s class.
